Andre Balazs Rose at The Standard Hotel

I don’t usually complain about paying astronomical prices for bad things (such as my $30+ plate of pasta at Nello) but this was really just absurd. So I was at the outdoor bar area at The Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking grabbing a quick drink before their Sunday night bingo. I looked at the menu and noticed they offered the Andre Balazs Rose from The Wolffer Estate in the Hamptons so I decided to order a bottle. So the price of the bottle on the menu read “$15/$30″ which usually means “$15 for the glass and $30 for the bottle”. I thought this was pretty cheap but maybe the Standard gets a discount since it’s the owner’s hotel or something. I get the bottle and it really doesn’t taste very good, even for $30. However, once I got the bill I realized that the bottle was $100 and the “$15/$30″ actually meant “$15 for a Small Carafe and $30 for a Large Carafe” and this is indicated in very tiny font on the top of the menu. Even for $30 I thought it wasn’t great wine and at $100 this was easily one of the worst bottles I could have purchased. I much preferred the $60 Rose from Channing Daughters I purchased at The Lion and come to think of it, the $55 Punch Bowl at The Standard Grill costs almost half of this bad bottle of Rose. So to the Standard Hotel, please fix your menu so that the bottle prices are also included on the drink menu so other patrons aren’t fooled by your scheme. Then again, I should have known something was up when our waiter was being especially nice to us. [Photo via]